Lesbian couple donate holiday tree in Rockefeller Center

New
York City – A Latina
lesbian couple donated the 72-foot tree that stands in the middle of
Rockefeller Center this year. The couple has been married six years, according
to the New York Times.

Shirley
Figueroa said she grew up in the Bronx where there were no trees on her street.
Two years ago, she and her wife, Lissette Gutierrez, moved about 30 minutes
upstate. They were asked to donate the tree, becoming the first same-sex couple
and the first Latinas whose tree stood in the middle of Rockefeller Center for
the holidays. “It’s going to be really amazing to be down there and know that
the tree came from our yard,” Figueroa told NBC News this week.

Figueroa
said Rockefeller Center has been eyeing the 12-ton tree in their yard since
before they even moved there. “After we bought the house, the previous owner
told us, ‘Hey, by the way, the tree in the yard? Rockefeller Center has been
scouting it,’” Figueroa said. “I didn’t believe it. Until they came knocking on
the door.” The tree marks the first time in the holiday tradition, which began
in the 1930s, that the Rockefeller Center tree has ever been donated by a
same-sex or Latino couple. After Christmas, when the tree is taken down, it
will be sawed into lumber that will be donated to Habitat for Humanity. (Dallas
Voice – David Taffet
Dallasvoice.com/lesbian-couples-tree-stands-in-rockefeller-center/ & The
Hill atThehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/419211-rockefeller-center-christmas-tree-donated-by-gay-latina-couple)